As part of assembly line or automatic assembly machinery, springs of all types, both compression and tension springs, are used in the manufacture and assembly of industrial, commercial and consumer products. While it is possible that springs could be manufactured adjacent an assembly line where they are utilized, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,413,659; 4,120,392; and 4,050,610, it is more likely that springs will be obtained by a product manufacturer from an outside vendor and delivered to the assembly line, most likely in boxes or other containers where the springs are deposited after manufacture.
Springs shipped in pallets or boxes may form clumps of articles that ordinarily require costly manual labor to separate and prepare for individual application on an assembly line. This is true both for compression springs, and to an even larger extent for tension springs that may be made with hooks or fastener receiving loops that extend from their respective ends.
Heretofore, it has been known to utilize vibratory apparatus for separating both tension and compression springs. Such machinery is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,267,639; 4,739,873; 6,041,914; 3,542,185; 5,826,698; 4,035,029. While vibration may separate tangled springs, it may also cause springs to become more tangled. Other mechanical detanglers such as shown at U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,349 have utilized a pawl to bounce compression spring outwardly of a feed trough when they are tangled.
Wholly mechanical spring detanglers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,156,494 and 4,220,257. Similarly to the '349 patent noted above, these two patents utilize the elastic function of coiled springs to bounce the springs around in a chamber utilizing a rotating base within the chamber having differing shaped longitudinal bumpers positioned radially thereon. As the springs are dropped into the hollow cylindrical chamber, and they impinge on the rotating bottom of the chamber, or on any of the bumpers mounted on the rotating bottom disk in the chamber, those springs may tend to separate and bounce around the chamber. A relatively large opening with respect to the size of the spring, is positioned adjacent the top of the chamber to receive springs that would ordinarily, in a random fashion, impinge on the top of the chamber side wall and more through an opening therein. These springs then generally proceed by gravity downward where they are deposited individually for use in a product manufacturing process. Due to the size of the chamber openings, clumps of springs may also move through the chamber opening. Also, no individual spring orientation, such as an end to end configuration, can be provided.